Minding Our Elders®

PBS documentary shows Alzheimer’s from a unique perspective

When Scott Kirschenbaum, who has long been an activist for elders, met Lee Gorewitz, something compelling happened. Kirschenbaum felt drawn to the still dynamic resident of Traditions Unit, a care facility for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Their meeting, combined with Kirschenbaum’s need to show the world what the life of one person who has Alzheimer’s is like, resulted in the PBS documentary “You’re Looking at Me Like I Live Here and I Don’t.” 

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Reminiscing a powerful “drug” for people with dementia

I love stories. When I was a teenager, I’d encourage grandparents to relate stories of their young years struggling to survive on the wind-swept prairie. When I grew older, I was fascinated by the stories my parents and in-laws told of their early years of growing up during the Great Depression. Little did I know at the time that peoples’ stories would become the springboard for my life’s work. Now there is mounting evidence that encouraging our elders to reminisce about their past is therapeutic as well as enjoyable.

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Communicating with loved ones who cannot speak

For many of us, a time comes when we are visiting or living with a loved who cannot communicate his or her needs. This person cannot tell us when there is pain; this person cannot tell us about love given and received; this person cannot communicate his or her most basic needs. It's up to us to try to determine what the needs are. It's also up to us to understand that communicating our love to them is vital.

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The Arts Can Give People with Alzheimer’s a Reason to Live

  "…My mantra is if medicine is keeping people alive longer with dementia, it's a crime not to give them a life worth living.''

If any one person has structured my own thoughts into a powerful sentence, it's John Zeisel, in the above quote. Zeisel is the president of Woburn-based Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, which runs six residences in Massachusetts and New York where they care for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Zeisel also co-founded, in 2002, "Artists for Alzheimer's," or ARTZ, a nonprofit organization that develops cultural experiences for people with dementia.

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Should Promoting the Arts as Treatment for People with Alzheimer’s Receive More Attention?

In a talk at Cheltenham Science Festival, Dr John Zeisel made it clear that current attitudes about people with Alzheimer's are outdated. In a news article on Google.com, titled, "Call to change Alzheimer's attitude,,"  Zeisel, president of  Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, an international provider of non-pharmacological treatment for people with dementia, was quoted as saying, "We need a complete sea change in attitudes towards Alzheimer's if we are to even begin to respond to this growing health crisis."

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Using the Arts to Promote Quality of Life for People With Alzheimer’s

Interest in the arts as enhancers of life's quality is pretty well understood. Studies have shown the healing effects of music. I wrote about one such study in "Music Therapy Helps Some Regain Speech After Stroke."  No matter what our age or health situation is, music, as well as the other fine arts and crafts, help most of us live life more fully. Assisted living centers, nursing homes and adult day services have for years focused on music and art as entertainment, as well as therapy, for their residnts.Lately, however, the movement seems to be gaining even more steam.

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A Book To Spark Conversation and Thought about the Dying Process

We will all die. If there is any one truth, that is it. Our culture has, in my opinion, done its best to ignore this fact and pretend we can avoid, through medical intervention and even through our obsession with youth, this basic fact of life. We will all die. In the end, this inability of our culture to accept death as part of the life cycle has skewed our ability to imagine that, though the physical death of a loved one is painful to those left behind, the experience of attending to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of a dying loved one, and then witnessing the essence of the person leave the body through death, can be a beautiful, life-altering moment.

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Any Age Caregiving: Breast Cancer Journey Planner Feels Like A Supportive Friend

Primarily, I write about elder care. But people can get breast cancer at any age. And, unfotunately, caregivers often neglect their mammograms, and find they are not only caring for an elder, but traveling the journey of a breast cancer patient, as well.

 

So, in honor of National Breast Cancer Month, I'm introducing my caregiving readers to a new tool for people diagnosed with breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Journey Planner, by Carrie Sanders, a cancer survivor herself, (found at www.therapyinseattle.com) is being promoted in conjunction with this special month.

 

The Breast Cancer Journey Planner feels beautiful and special in the hand. The three-ring-binder format invites the reader to use the book as she chooses. It’s easy to add notes from doctor visits and letters from friends. You can add photos and journal entries.

 

Not that The Breast Cancer Journey Planner doesn’t have tons of advice and guidance on its own. I just happen to love “planners” that give people freedom to do it their way.  This book accomplishes that goal to perfection.

 

No cancer diagnosis and no treatment plan will be one-size-fits-all. Why not have a journal filled with advice and a Web site to visit for comfort and guidance, all of which you can turn into a unique record of your journey? All of that, with education and encouragement all the way? This is a fantastic concept.

 

Go to Carrie’s site and check it out. I can tell you first hand that, if you have been diagnosed with breast cancer,  this book will feel like a supportive friend.  If you have a friend with breast cancer – here’s the perfect way to say, “I care.”

 

Find out more at www.therapyinseattle.com.

People With Dementia Can Often Enjoy the Past in the Present

My sister works for Prairie Public, our PBS station here on - well, here on the prairie. Prairie Public religiously runs the old Lawrence Welk shows, which are nearly fought over by underwriters, as they are so loyally watched. Lawrence Welk was born in tiny Strasburg, ND and died in 1992 in Santa Monica, CA.

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